Douglas Herman

The Strategy Group was founded in Chicago in 1989 by progressive campaign professionals committed to the idea that strategy makes the difference between winning and losing. Since our founding, we have grown into a national firm with offices in four cities (Cleveland, Washington DC, Chicago, and Los Angeles) and an unparalleled record of success. Our team served as sole direct mail strategists to then-State Senator Barack Obama’s U.S. Senate campaign, along with his Presidential primary campaign in 2008. We reprised the role in the President’s re-election campaign in 2012, with Strategy Group partners embedded in the campaign’s senior leadership, overseeing all national direct mail testing and production. In 2020, The Strategy Group helped elect Deborah Ross and Kathy Manning to Congress – fully 2/3 of all new Democratic seats picked up – while guiding NC Gov. Roy Cooper and frontline Congressional clients like Elissa Slotkin, Conor Lamb, and Andy Kim through challenging re-election campaigns. We played a role in 4 of the 8 Democratic gubernatorial pickups (ME, IL, MI, NC) in 2016 and 2018, helped hold Democratic governorships in CA and RI and helped elect 3 of the 6 female Democratic Governors serving in 2020. We also helped Democrats take back Congress, working in 12 House pickup races, including 5 in districts won by Trump and in 2 of the top 3 upsets in the country, according to the New York Times. During that same time period, we also guided a variety of diverse candidates through primaries and generals – ranging from U.S. Senators Tammy Duckworth and Tammy Baldwin to legislative and municipal candidates across the country. Finally, we helped organizations ranging from AFSCME, EMILY’s List, Sierra Club, LCV, House Majority PAC and Senate Majority PAC realize their goals up and down the ballot.